Hi to all our family and friends back home.

Firstly to say that we are all fit and well, apart from a few bumps & bruises which are to be expected from life at sea.  The main cause of bumps and a few curses is a rope across the companionway which keeps the staysail from "backing"  Now, we all know the rope is there but that has not stopped each of us from headbutting it when we come up on deck!  So far Jim has hit it hardest and I am sure his friends can accurately imagine his comments.

We are still sailing with a main sail, a foresail and a staysail - the latter is between the other 2 sails.  The wind is basically just behind us and we have some large rolling waves.  This makes for some very fast sailing and there is now a competition between the helmsmen (all of us take a turn) to see who can clock the highest speed.  However it is not good enough to be fast - it also has to be in the right direction.  So surfing down the waves but not on course does not count.  Inevitably, perhaps,, the current record holder is our skipper, Dougie, who clocked just over 14 knots - and believe me that is fast.

The other highlight has been the appearance of flying fish.  The first made its appearance last night at the feet of Giles, who was helming at the time.He says that he now knows that he can dance as he hopped around the deck whilst Nikki picked the poor fish up and threw it back over the side.  During the day we have seen shoales of perhaps 50 and over flying out and over the waves - they really do look like they are flying as they change direction in the air and drop back into the sea. Obviously our thoughts turned to food - does anyone know if flying fish are edible?

Last night we continued our astronomy "school".  With the aid of Mikes book on astronomy (in Portugese which none of us speak) and first mate, Julian's Iphone astro application,we have been identifying and trying to remember various stars and constellations.  I now know where Castor & Polliks are.

We are trucking along at an average over 8 knots and anticipate reaching Cape Verde Sunday evening.  So expect a flurry of phone calls to those at home - but only after the first 2 beers have gone down, obviously

Staying safe and having fun

Rowena